nation, it will be by means of the principle of increase which that system pronounces as an evil. Man, indeed, may continue to exist as a Nimrod, "a mighty hunter before the Lord," and either preserve a wilderness around him, or, like the Norman Conqueror, create one; but his indolence and ferocity are no proofs of the evils of the principle of population; nor is one iota of all the misery they occasion attributable to Providence, or, in other words, "to the simple cause "of the superiority of the power of population to the "means of subsistence." (22) I have dwelt the longer on this part of the subject, inasmuch as it is generally supposed, that from this people originally sprang those northern barbarians, to whose wars and irruptions Mr. Malthus directs our particular attention, as well as the savages of North America, whose habits appear so similar; those of the south of that continent having proceeded, as some believe, from the corresponding part of the old world, southern Asia. However that may be, the habits of barbarism are, in these cases, the same; for which the history of the species warrants us in asserting, there is no cure but an increase of population; and it was natural, therefore, to consider these habits, in reference to the question, and to trace them, as near as possible, up to their very source. (23) Many words will not be wasted on the wars for empire waged by the Assyrian or Persian monarchies; it being impossible that these should be construed into "struggles for room and food." Their common practice of desolating the countries they conquered, and of increasing the population of the central seats of their empires by their numerous captives, wholly negatives any such idea. Let the one memorable war of Nebuchadnezzar against the Jews suffice to exemplify this, when the latter were conquered, their country was desolated, and the principal part of their nation carried away as captives, and seated in the most densely-peopled district in his empire, or probably in the universe," by the waters of Babylon'." (24) Perhaps, having thus alluded to the first two universal monarchies, I might as well here conclude my observations on the quaternion; for, as it regards the subject under consideration, they may be all, most properly, classed together. Concerning the third of these, then, the Macedonian, none, I think, will presume to say, that Alexander, a name unrivalled in the annals of warfare, commenced his wonderful career, or wept at its termination, from a want of room or food. As to the Roman triumphs, whether amongst the distant Asiatics, or on the northern or southern frontiers of that extended empire; in Africa, in Germany, or in the then almost unknown, and certainly unoffending island we inhabit, not one of them had any such apology. Without a hyperbole, the annals of these boasted empires are written in blood; their history is but one continued series of aggressions and cruelties, for which it is no extenuation to say, that the Supreme Arbiter of events has ultimately overruled them, for the good of mankind. But, were all these accumulated horrors and atrocities resolvable into that invariable and irresistible law of animal creation, necessity, or, in other terms, into the law of population, as now expounded, they are, in the sight of both God and man, excusable, if not even meritorious. But the universal and eternal Parent of Mankind rolls back the impious accusation against his providence; and, if there be another world, and man 1 Psalm 137. be a responsible creature, these outrages on his peace will have to be accounted for on a very different principle to that of the modern theory of population. (25) Perhaps it may be objected, that most of the foregoing examples are upon too extensive a scale to illustrate the point at issue, and that it is unsafe to build any particular deductions on general views. Indeed, it is thought, by the author to whom I principally refer, that the subject is seen the clearest, when the example is the most narrowed'; which I cannot but think a singular axiom for one who has erected his entire system upon generalities, and neither a very safe nor a philosophical one as applied to the subject before us; because, in thus "narrowing" our views, we may chance to take individual exceptions for general rules, and personal and party prejudices for universal truths. Before this work is concluded, however, any objections of this nature will be completely obviated, and the subject will be sufficiently narrowed by being reduced to a matter of individual calculation. But, in the mean time, to meet this objection also, the consideration of war, as one of the principal checks to population, as well as in further proof of the fundamental errors entertained in the hypothesis under consideration, both as to its origin and necessity, will be further pursued in the form of a more minute inquiry. (26) I shall sum up the argument of this chapter, in the words of Sir Matthew Hale, an authority on all subjects on which he touched, and especially upon that of population, on which his principal work was written. "WE NEVER KNEW WARS TO GROW MERELY JPON ACCOUNT OF THE FULNESS OF ANY COUNTRY 1 Malthus, Essay on Population, pp. 163, 194, &c. 2 Hale, Origination of Mankind, § ii, c. xii. p. 240. 168 CHAPTER X. OF THE WARS, MIGRATIONS, AND COLONIZATIONS OF ANCIENT GREECE, AS AFFECTED BY POPULATION. (1) I SHALL now examine the evidence afforded by the history of Greece, in reference to the important question at issue; especially as the author I am still considering has directed our attention to the early condition of that interesting country, as well as to the opinions of its philosophers on the subject of the principle of population. To these opinions I shall hereafter adyert; when it will be seen how greatly they have been misrepresented; and shall now consider whether the condition of Greece, at any period of its history, afforded the least colour for the deductions which are professedly drawn from it, in favour of the notion of human superfecundity. (2) Again, however, let it be remembered, that the principle I hope to establish, not only admits, but requires, that in a country thinly peopled, as was Greece, the inhabitants should be prolific; but I shall shew that that prolificness had never been allowed so to develop itself, as to render the "direct checks" to population even apparently necessary, or otherwise than what they always are in themselves, as well as in their effects,-direct and obvious curses. (3) After having mentioned the early division. of Greece into small states, this author deduces thence, that there was "considerable attention to agriculture'," which he represents as a prevailing Malthus, Essay on Population, p. 163. 66 pursuit, and intimates, that "each proprietor would "be induced to cultivate his land to the utmost ." Then come the inevitable consequences according to his system. Population," notwithstanding all this cultivation, "followed the products of the "earth with more than equal pace; and when the "overflowing numbers were not taken off by the "drains of war or disease, they found vent in frequent "and repeated colonization "." These consequences, he says, were brought home to every thinking person, and were very clearly seen and distinctly traced to their source. "The strong tendency of population to "increase beyond the means of subsistence was, it 66 seems, known to the legislators and philosophers of "those times," who regarded the question, therefore, "as deeply affecting the happiness and tranquillity of "society." To some of these "thinking persons," happily for the argument, we can still appeal. (4) And first, as it regards this supposition of the minute and universal culture of Greece, on which basis the whole argument necessarily rests. The free citizens of the different states, we know were, in reference to the extent of country they possessed, extremely few3. It follows, therefore, as an inevitable conclusion, either that the territories of Greece were not minutely subdivided, or, if thus apportioned, that immense tracts still remained unappropriated and uncultivated. Both of these conclusions are partly the fact, and either of them is fatal to all that has been advanced by Mr. Malthus concerning Greece, even upon his own shewing, when he says, that, in the absence of other pursuits, their industry was principally directed to agriculture. And furthermore, whatever part of the surMalthus, Essay 'on Population, p. 2 Ibid., p. 163. 162. 3 See Hume's Essay on Populousness of Ancient Nations, p. 240, * Malthus, p. 162. |